           kw-number (count kw-with-wild-cards)
           max-kw-number-allowed (get-max-kw-number-allowed max-kw-length)
           msg (str "Max number of keyword strings with wildcard allowed is: " max-kw-number-allowed
-                    " given the max length of the keyword strings being: " max-kw-length)]
-      (when (> kw-number max-kw-number-allowed)
-        (errors/throw-service-errors :bad-request (vector msg))))))
+                   " given the max length of the keyword strings being: " max-kw-length)]
+      (when (or (> kw-number KEYWORD_WILDCARD_NUMBER_MAX) (> kw-number max-kw-number-allowed))
+        (let [msg (cond 
+                    (> kw-number KEYWORD_WILDCARD_NUMBER_MAX) "Max # of keyword strings with * allowed is 30"
+                    :else msg)]  
+          (errors/throw-service-errors :bad-request (vector msg)))))))
  
 (defmethod q2e/query->elastic :collection
   [query]

    (= length 5) 83
    (and (> length 0) (<= length 4)) 118))

(defn- ^:pure validate-keyword-wildcards
  "Validates if the number of keyword strings with wildcards exceeds the max number allowed
   for the max length of the keyword strings."

         :query {:function_score {:score_mode :multiply
                                  :functions (k2e/keywords->boosted-elastic-filters keywords boosts)
                                  :query {:filtered {:query (eq/match-all)
                                                     :filter core-query}}}}}) 
      (if boosts
        (errors/throw-service-errors :bad-request ["Relevance boosting is only supported for keyword queries"])
        {:query {:filtered {:query (eq/match-all)
